I have a chance to purchase 22 pieces of Tuftex corrugated plastic. It's like corrugated roofing. It's made to install under an elevated deck to keep your patio underneath protected from the rain. They are 26" x 10' long, so they would cover a lot of firewood stacks. My main concern is how to secure it to the stacks so as not to blow off in a storm. I'm thinking it would be easier to take on and off this summer than my tarps I'm using now. I keep my wood covered unless it's going to be sunny and dry for a few days in a row. Trying to get the best seasoning possible by keeping the top covered in the rain, then uncovered for the sun. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks, Jeff
I acquired several pieces of metal roofing and siding panels assorted lengths. Lay them on top making sure it slopes and drips clear of the stack. Use longer pieces of 2x8, 10, 12 with weight on them (uglies, cinder blocks etc). Im using some reclaimed 4' 2x12 on a couple stacks and it works great. Disperse the weight over the panel. Be very mindful of the corners...sharp edges. Some stacks ive made to the size of the metal. Can you run rope around the entire stack and tie it off? Just another thought?
buZZsaw BRAD thanks for the quick reply! Those panels are $200, but I don't need all of them for firewood stacks. I would use some of them to close in the North end of my covered patio. There are also 9 boxes of the fasteners used to install them for that purpose. Looks like I need to scrounge up some scrap lumber for weights. I would probably cut the sharp corners off the pieces when I put them on the stacks.
You could use screws with a rubber washer/grommet and fasten through the ridge of the corrugated directly into the firewood. It would take a good gust to pull the corrugated with 4-6 splits off the top of the stack.
I’d be concerned that if it did fly you’d get some breakage. Especially if any weight you use is well attached. Well attached sounds good but if it fails to hold it down it’s not gonna be pretty. I use EPDM rubber (roofing) 5 foot wide tide strips give me nice coverage on double stacks. I’ve found it’s not that easy to keep them in place. I use all the old wood pallets for weight. Originally spaced far apart. As time goes by and the wind blows closer together We just had a nice blow up here. 60-70 mph gusts forecasted. Not sure what was recorded. It’s all on the ground. Not very surprised really. Looks like I’ll be putting some splits inside the pallets too. Wanted to avoid that but it’s no fun putting it all back on. Location plays a role. My stacks are at the northern end of a field. If the wind had come from any direction but south they may have held. So in my case I’ll be going with extra weight on the top. Have over 1000 sq ft of rubber to hold down. Would cost a small fortune in bungee cords LOL At 26” your either doubling up or single stacking. Which? I’ve considered jamming rods or sticks into a void in the stacks further down and using rope or bungee cords. Not sure how well grommets would work in rubber. Don’t think the rope would work too well, needs constant pull. Good luck.
I just save off some of the firewood pieces and put several on top spread around. We've had some pretty high winds here lately and none have taken off yet. Like Brad said, make sure they will drain well and distribute the weight and try to put the weights where there is a piece of wood supporting it underneath so it doesn't put extra stress on your panel. Even the ones on top are still OK if you're only leaving them a year or two.
Cinder blocks, 2’ square patio blocks, bricks, cobble stones and large flat heavy rocks. Just cover the stacks. and don’t worry about removing the panels until it’s time to move the stack. I’ve had panels fly off so had to increase the weight. If the panels are delicate or potentially damaged by the weight, throw a pallet on top of them and the weight on top of the pallet. I stopped throwing uglies on top as they didn’t seem to provide too much bang for the buck. The lower and wider your weight is, the better. I’ve had cinder blocks “roll” of the stacks when the wind has caught an edge. Use more weight than you think you need and you will be fine.
LOL, If I put milk jugs filled with water on top, I would end up shooting them... They're my favorite target for shootin' my .244 (other than groundhogs). They blow up REAL good! LOL
Get some of the wavy milled pieces of wood that are used to mount the plastic panels and some 1x1 deck spindles. Put the spindles on top and the milled piece under and screw them together. Cut the spindles/wavy boards longer than your plastic panels are wide and use the wood as a cleat to tie it down to your pallets. It will also hold the sheets overhang so it will keep your stacks drier. The only thing that will suck is leaves and other debris will eventually clog your channels up top.
Okay, some advice. Stop making more work for yourself by covering and then uncovering depending upon the weather. You really are not helping that wood much all by doing that but making yourself a lot of un-needed work. We've found the absolute best way to dry wood is to leave it uncovered the first summer and perhaps into the fall (depending on what weather you have in the fall). Then top cover it and forget about it until it is time to burn. Here is some good reading for you: Primer on Woodburning by Backwoods Savage On the top covering for you would be the same as for us. There are many ways of doing it, from just throwing uglies on top, cement blocks or anything heavy. But you need to put extra attention to the side where strong winds tend to hit. Other ideas is to screw it down right to the woodpile but you would need lots and lots of screws to make sure it is held through those strong wind storm. Another could be weights, like maybe some milk bottles. Fill them with sand or whatever. Tie a rope to the handle of the bottle. One bottle on each side of the stack. The rope should hold the bottles a bit off the ground. You might need several of these per wood stack. Or instead of bottles you could use small earth anchors. Long pipe could be laid on top of the covering or a long log or two and these can work out very nicely. Here are some pictures of some wood piles we've had; all covered with old galvanized roofing.
I just got some of this stuff to cover the stacks and put some of the splits on top. The wood is stacked in a wind tunnel sorta so its blown hard but never had a sheet fly off. Right now I’m gonna keep them uncovered for the time being and let the sun do its work. Cover them later on.
I use uglies to hold the roofing on my stacks down - I never seem to run short of those. Have used cinderblocks also. If the wind blows it off I would just add more.
Lots of good ideas guys thanks! I'm just a little concerned about paying $200 for a trial that may not work out for me, even though I would use half the panels to close off one side of my patio. My stack is 6' wide and about 34' long and is covered with 2 tarps, 1 is 8' by 16' and the other is 8' by 20' so they overhang about 1' on each side. They are held down with either a bungee cord or a ball bungee at every grommet. OOPS, The wife just made this $200 purchase a no go, said she didn't want the wall enclosing one end of the patio to be built! You know what they say, happy wife happy life!
I don't need to top cover so take this for what it is worth, but now about put a couple of long pieces on your first row To use as tie-down anchor point and then stack as normal? They will stick out and have the entire weight of the stack on them. A rope or chain or whatever you have can go over the top and hold everything down
I have good luck with getting used concrete forms from a local construction supply company. They throw them away periodically and I have enough now to cover about 2+ years of stacked firewood. I stack on pallets and then tie them on the ends and middle with masonry string. It works 99% of the time except when a pile falls or crazy high winds. My stacks are a very slight incline which allows me to cover the stacks and place the forms in a shingle fashion for water drainage
Tires work good. Not too heavy, but heavy enough. As you empty your wood stacks you can stack the tires six or eight high and they won't take up much space or look ugly. Sent from my SM-A102U using Tapatalk
